Adopted by most countries back in
2007, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples (UNDRIP) faced but a handful of holdouts: the
USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Flash forward to last week,
when a senior Canadian politician said his government was
developing a so-called "Canadian definition" of at least some
portions of UNDRIP, including the bedrock notion of free,
prior and informed Indigenous consent. Helping us to decipher what
that could mean going forward is Hayden King, Director of the
Centre for Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University.

This week on the program, making sense of Manitoba's Election. As a province with one of Canada's largest proportions of Aboriginal people, it's worth asking what the end of the NDP's 17-year run in favour of the Progressive Conservatives could mean to Indigenous interests going forward. Sharing his thoughts is long-time journalist Trevor Greyeyes, editor of the First Nations Voice newspaper.

The remote Ontario community of Attawapiskat is but one example of a First Nation caught in the grips of a devastating suicide epidemic. This week, professor of psychiatry Amy Bombay joins us to explore the bigger picture and difficult histories underlying these all-too-common issues facing reserves across Canada.

"An ongoing medical crisis." According to doctors serving First Nations west of James Bay, that is the current state of Aboriginal health for the northern Ontario region. Dr. James Makokis is a Cree family doctor based in Alberta who also teaches at Yellowhead Tribal College and the Universities of Alberta and Toronto. He shares his perspective on the health care challenges and barriers facing Indigenous communities right across Canada.